§ 6. Judicial districts; composition; supreme court continued; justices of supreme court.
509 words·~2 min read·
/ny/constitution/judiciary/6A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
§ 6. a. The state shall be divided into eleven judicial districts. The
first judicial district shall consist of the counties of Bronx and New
York. The second judicial district shall consist of the counties of
Kings and Richmond. The third judicial district shall consist of the
counties of Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan,
and Ulster. The fourth judicial district shall consist of the counties
of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, St. Lawrence,
Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington. The fifth judicial
district shall consist of the counties of Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis,
Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego. The sixth judicial district shall consist
of the counties of Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware,
Madison, Otsego, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins. The seventh judicial
district shall consist of the counties of Cayuga, Livingston, Monroe,
Ontario, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne and Yates. The eighth judicial district
shall consist of the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua,
Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming. The ninth judicial district
shall consist of the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and
Westchester. The tenth judicial district shall consist of the counties
of Nassau and Suffolk. The eleventh judicial district shall consist of
the county of Queens.
b. Once every ten years the legislature may increase or decrease the
number of judicial districts or alter the composition of judicial
districts and thereupon re-apportion the justices to be thereafter
elected in the judicial districts so altered. Each judicial district
shall be bounded by county lines.
c. The justices of the supreme court shall be chosen by the electors
of the judicial district in which they are to serve. The terms of
justices of the supreme court shall be fourteen years from and including
the first day of January next after their election.
d. The supreme court is continued. It shall consist of the number of
justices of the supreme court including the justices designated to the
appellate divisions of the supreme court, judges of the county court of
the counties of Bronx, Kings, Queens and Richmond and judges of the
court of general sessions of the county of New York authorized by law on
the thirty-first day of August next after the approval and ratification
of this amendment by the people, all of whom shall be justices of the
supreme court for the remainder of their terms. The legislature may
increase the number of justices of the supreme court in any judicial
district, except that the number in any district shall not be increased
to exceed one justice for fifty thousand, or fraction over thirty
thousand, of the population thereof as shown by the last federal census
or state enumeration. The legislature may decrease the number of
justices of the supreme court in any judicial district, except that the
number in any district shall not be less than the number of justices of
the supreme court authorized by law on the effective date of this
article.
e. The clerks of the several counties shall be clerks of the supreme
court, with such powers and duties as shall be prescribed by law.